Project Overview
A tanker released diesel onto the I-40 corridor near Gallup, New Mexico. Product ran off the highway surface, entered a stormwater culvert, and migrated downgradient along a drainage corridor into the adjacent right-of-way — roughly 292 linear feet from the point of entry.
That turned a highway spill into a three-jurisdiction project. The travel lanes belong to NMDOT. The drainage corridor runs through City of Gallup right-of-way. And the release itself is reportable to the New Mexico Environment Department, which wanted daily field reporting for the duration.
DEKON ran the response for the responsible party from first mobilization through final revegetation: emergency cleanup, excavation and disposal of impacted soil, confirmation sampling, backfill to two different agency specifications, and reseeding of the disturbed ground — with an interstate lane closed the entire time.
Project Information
Project Type
Emergency Hydrocarbon Release Response & Remediation
Location
I-40 corridor near Gallup, New Mexico · highway right-of-way and municipal drainage corridor
Duration
8 field days, April 20 – May 5, 2026
Labor
369 man-hours · crews of 4 to 5 under a DEKON field supervisor
Waste Removed
400 cubic yards of hydrocarbon-impacted soil, manifested to a permitted petroleum-impacted soil treatment facility
Oversight
NMED daily field reporting · NMDOT District 6 right-of-way permit · City of Gallup right-of-way permit
Outcome
All five confirmation samples below the 100 mg/kg TPH-DRO action level — highest result 81.2 mg/kg; zero safety incidents
Key Challenges & DEKON’s Solutions
- Active interstate — excavation within feet of live eastbound traffic for the length of the project
- Three separate permitting authorities: NMDOT, City of Gallup, and NMED, each with its own submittal requirements
- Product had already left the highway surface — through a culvert and ~292 feet downgradient along a drainage corridor
- NMED expected daily field reporting, not a single report at the end
- Excavation cavity straddled two jurisdictions, each specifying its own backfill material
- 1.5 acres of disturbed ground left exposed to wind erosion after restoration
- Engineer-stamped Traffic Control Plan with eastbound lane and shoulder closures maintained continuously through the work
- Right-of-way permits pulled from NMDOT District 6 and the City of Gallup before mobilization, with hold-harmless and certificates of insurance filed to each
- Culvert flushed and treated, and confirmation sampling laid out along the migration path rather than as a cavity grid — the pattern that actually proves the runoff corridor is clean
- Daily NMED field reports filed for all eight working days, plus a consolidated final field activity report
- 50 tons of NMDOT-spec and 350 tons of City of Gallup-spec backfill placed in lifts to each agency’s own standard, topped with 25 tons of topsoil at finish grade
- Revegetation with a custom native seed mix, certified weed-free straw mulch, and mechanical crimping to hold seed and mulch in wind
Scope of Work Delivered
- Emergency surface cleanup — hydrocarbon treatment of asphalt and concrete staining, high-volume wash-down, and culvert flush and treatment along the stormwater conveyance path
- Progressive excavation of hydrocarbon-impacted soil by mini-excavator and loader, loaded to 20-yard end dumps
- 400 cubic yards manifested and transported under DEKON-controlled chain of custody to a permitted petroleum-impacted soil treatment facility
- Five-point confirmation grab sampling along the documented migration path, submitted under chain of custody to a TNI-accredited laboratory
- Backfill and restoration to grade — 50 tons NMDOT-spec, 350 tons City of Gallup-spec, 25 tons topsoil, placed in lifts
- Revegetation of ~1.5 acres — hand-broadcast native seed mix, weed-free straw mulch, mechanically crimped in windy conditions
- Full regulatory documentation — daily NMED field reports, final field activity report, waste manifests, bills of lading, and laboratory data package
Results
All five confirmation samples came in below the 100 mg/kg TPH-DRO project action level, the highest at 81.2 mg/kg. Volatile organic compounds, BTEX constituents, MTBE, and gasoline range organics were non-detect at laboratory reporting limits in every sample.
Eight field days, 369 man-hours, an interstate lane closed throughout, and heavy equipment working beside live traffic — with zero safety incidents, zero injuries, and zero secondary releases.
Why This Project Demonstrates DEKON’s Capabilities
Most contractors can dig out contaminated dirt. The part that decides whether a highway release closes out cleanly is everything around the digging: getting the right-of-way permits before the crew rolls, keeping an engineer-stamped traffic control plan in force, filing the daily reports the regulator asked for on the day they were asked for, and sampling in a pattern that answers the question the agency is actually going to ask.
Placing two different agency-spec backfills in the same cavity because the cavity crosses a jurisdiction line is the kind of detail that does not show up in a bid and decides whether the site gets signed off.
See DEKON’s 24/7 spill and emergency response capability, or the background on OSRO training and certification.